Migrant caravan: Mexico says it will offer work permits, health benefits to those who stay

Thousands of migrants camp overnight in southern Mexico as they make their way towards the U.S. border.
USA TODAY

Migrants travel on a cattle truck, as a thousands-strong caravan of Central American migrants slowly makes its way toward the U.S. border, between Pijijiapan and Arriaga, Mexico, Friday, Oct. 26, 2018. Many migrants said they felt safer traveling and sleeping with several thousand strangers in unknown towns than hiring a smuggler or trying to make the trip alone.(Photo: Rodrigo Abd/AP)

ARRIAGA, MEXICO — Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto unveiled a plan Friday to provide migrants in southern Mexico with temporary work permits and access to public health benefits, education and shelters.

The plan targets the caravan of Central American migrants, which is winding its way through the southern state of Chiapas and shows few signs of petering out — even as the participants endure discomfort and diseases on their long daily treks.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly pledged to deny the caravan entry into the United States.

"You’re at home," Peña Nieto said in a Friday afternoon video statement.

"If you still haven’t done it and form part of the migrant caravan, there is still time to start the process for regularizing your (immigration) situation," he said. "You will receive medical attention and send your children to school. You will have an official, temporary identification to do the necessary paperwork while you regularize your situation."

Peña Nieto, who leaves office Dec. 1, previously said participants in the caravan were free to request asylum in Mexico, but anyone lacking the proper documents would be detained and deported.

President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador also promised to provide work permits for Central American migrants as the caravan arrived at Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala in recent days. He previously said Mexico would “not do the dirty work of any foreign government," but has not repeated that pledge since the campaign.

The U.S.-bound caravan has been the subject of widely varying size estimates. Organizers have said it numbers as many as 10,000 people, many from Honduras, who crossed from Guatemala into Mexico and are now moving north slowly, on foot.

More than 1,700 caravan members have applied for asylum in Mexico and are being housed and fed at a camp in the city of Tapachula near the Guatemala border. Advocates working on migration issues say Mexico’s agency for adjudicating asylum claims is still sorting through a crushing backlog.

Trump, meanwhile, has continued to raise concerns about the migrants, who remain more than 1,000 miles from the nearest part of the United States. He is suggesting sending 800 U.S. troops to the border and somehow close the border entirely.

On Thursday, reports surfaced that Trump was considering a proclamation imposing travel restrictions on migrants along the southern border, using the same rationale for his controversial travel ban for several Muslim-majority countries.

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As of Oct. 27, Ernesto Martinez, 27, and his wife Yesenia, 23, have been traveling with their three daughters, including a baby who was just 17 days old when they joined the caravan. Nick Oza/The Republic

Ernesto Martinez, 27, and his wife Yesenia, 23, are traveling with their three daughters, including a baby who was just 17 days old when they joined the caravan last Oct. 20. The family is from San Martin, Retalhuleu, Guatemala. They have pushed the baby in a stroller over 180 miles crossing through the state of Chiapas, before reaching the state of Oaxaca on Oct. 27 Nick Oza/The Republic

Ernesto Martinez, 27, and his wife Yesenia, 23, are traveling with their three daughters, including a baby who was just 17 days old when they joined the caravan on Oct. 20. They have pushed the baby in a stroller over 180 miles crossing through the state of Chiapas, before reaching the state of Oaxaca on Oct. 27, along with their two other daughters, 4-year-old Lynsi, and 6-year-old, Natalie. The baby, Reychel, turned 24 days old on Saturday. The family is from San Martin, Retalhuleu, Guatemala. Nick Oza/The Republic

Thousands of migrants from Honduras and other Central American countries traveling in a caravan reached the state of Oaxaca on Oct. 27, after crossing through the entire state of Chiapas on their way to the U.S. border. Nick Oza/The Republic

Bathing in the river offers a little relief from a day of walking in the oppressive heat for some of the thousands of migrants in the caravan. Thousands of migrants from Honduras and other Central American countries traveling in a caravan reached the state of Oaxaca on Oct. 27, after crossing through the entire state of Chiapas on their way to the U.S. border. Nick Oza/The Republic

Thousands of migrants from Honduras and other Central American countries traveling in a caravan reached the state of Oaxaca on Oct. 27, after crossing through the entire state of Chiapas on their way to the U.S. border. Nick Oza/The Republic

Thousands of migrants from Honduras and other Central American countries traveling in a caravan reached the state of Oaxaca on Oct. 27, after crossing through the entire state of Chiapas on their way to the U.S. border. Nick Oza/The Republic

Thousands of migrants from Honduras and other Central American countries traveling in a caravan reached the state of Oaxaca on Oct. 27, after crossing through the entire state of Chiapas on their way to the U.S. border. Nick Oza/The Republic

Several hundred Central American migrants walking on the road near Ciudad Hidalgo in southern Mexico after crossing the river from Guatemala are loaded onto buses and escorted by Mexican federal police and immigration officers on Oct. 26, 2018. It’s unclear if they were being taken to be deported or processed for asylum. Nick Oza/The Republic

Several hundred Central American migrants walking on the road near Ciudad Hidalgo in southern Mexico after crossing the river from Guatemala are loaded onto buses and escorted by Mexican federal police and immigration officers on Oct. 26, 2018. It’s unclear if they were being taken to be deported or processed for asylum. Nick Oza/The Republic

Several hundred migrants from Honduras and El Salvador gather near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala. They wait to cross the Suchiate River that divides Guatemala and Mexico in hopes of heading north to the United States. Under pressure from the United States, Mexico shut a bridge in an effort to halt the migrants, mostly Hondurans, from crossing the border into Mexico. Nick Oza/The Republic

Several hundred migrants from Honduras and El Salvador gather near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala. They wait to cross the Suchiate River that divides Guatemala and Mexico in hopes of heading north to the United States. Under pressure from the United States, Mexico shut a bridge in an effort to halt the migrants, mostly Hondurans, from crossing the border into Mexico. Nick Oza/The Republic

Several hundred migrants from Honduras and El Salvador gather near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala. They wait to cross the Suchiate River that divides Guatemala and Mexico in hopes of heading north to the United States. Under pressure from the United States, Mexico shut a bridge in an effort to halt the migrants, mostly Hondurans, from crossing the border into Mexico. Nick Oza/The Republic

Penely Suzet Steward, from Honduras, says she wants to go to the U.S. to visit her sick children. Steward is among several hundred migrants from Central America gathered near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala. They wait to cross the Suchiate River that divides Guatemala and Mexico in hopes of heading north to the United States. Nick Oza/The Republic

Penely Suzet Steward, from Honduras, says she wants to go to the U.S. to visit her sick children. Steward is among several hundred migrants from Central America gathered near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala. They wait to cross the Suchiate River that divides Guatemala and Mexico in hopes of heading north to the United States. Nick Oza/The Republic

Penely Suzet Steward, from Honduras, says she wants to go to the U.S. to visit her sick children. Steward is among several hundred migrants from Central America gathered near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala. They wait to cross the Suchiate River that divides Guatemala and Mexico in hopes of heading north to the United States. Nick Oza/The Republic

Migrants from Honduras and El Salvador gather near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 25, 2018, as they wait to cross from Guatemala to Mexico and then head north to the United States. Nick Oza/The Republic

Migrants from Honduras and El Salvador gather near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 25, 2018, as they wait to cross from Guatemala to Mexico and then head north to the United States. Nick Oza/The Republic

Migrants from Honduras and El Salvador gather near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 25, 2018, as they wait to cross from Guatemala to Mexico and then head north to the United States. Nick Oza/The Republic

Migrants from Honduras and El Salvador gather near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 25, 2018, as they wait to cross from Guatemala to Mexico and then head north to the United States. Nick Oza/The Republic

Migrants from Honduras and El Salvador gather near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 25, 2018, as they wait to cross from Guatemala to Mexico and then head north to the United States. Nick Oza/The Republic

Migrants from Honduras and El Salvador gather near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 25, 2018, as they wait to cross from Guatemala to Mexico and then head north to the United States. Nick Oza/The Republic

Migrants from Honduras and El Salvador gather near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 25, 2018, as they wait to cross from Guatemala to Mexico and then head north to the United States. Nick Oza/The Republic

Migrants from Honduras and El Salvador gather near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 25, 2018, as they wait to cross from Guatemala to Mexico and then head north to the United States. Nick Oza/The Republic

Migrants from Honduras and El Salvador gather near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 25, 2018, as they wait to cross from Guatemala to Mexico and then head north to the United States. Nick Oza/The Republic

Migrants from Honduras and El Salvador gather near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 25, 2018, as they wait to cross from Guatemala to Mexico and then head north to the United States. Nick Oza/The Republic

Migrants from Honduras and El Salvador gather near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 25, 2018, as they wait to cross from Guatemala to Mexico and then head north to the United States. Nick Oza/The Republic

Migrants from Honduras and El Salvador gather near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 25, 2018, as they wait to cross from Guatemala to Mexico and then head north to the United States. Nick Oza/The Republic

Migrants from Honduras and El Salvador gather near a park in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 25, 2018, as they wait to cross from Guatemala to Mexico and then head north to the United States. Nick Oza/The Republic

Pedro Castillo, 23 years old, from Honduras, took a raft from Guatemala to cross the Suchiate River to Mexico. Castillo is planning to join the migrant caravan. Mexican immigration officers ask Castillo for his identification. Nick Oza/The Republic

In Mexico, Peña Nieto has boasted of record-low unemployment south of the border, though Mexicans often complain of low pay, rising prices and suffering an erosion in their purchasing power. Mexico’s minimum wage is just $4.50 per day.

The caravan arrived Friday in the city of Arriaga, where a freight train known as "La Bestia" starts rumbling north. The migrants walked and hitched rides for roughly 60 miles under oppressive heat and at times through the acrid smoke of brush being burned along the side of the highway.